Barcelona were resoundingly defeated 3-0 by Benfica in their UEFA Champions League (UCL) encounter at the Shota Aveladze Stadium on Wednesday night.
Darwin Nunez (brace) and Rafa Silva scored as the Portuguese league leaders compounded the woes of the fallen former UCL champions under Ronald Koeman.
Nunez scored in the third minute, slotting into the bottom corner after evading Eric Garcia, Barcelona defender, for 1-0.
The rest of the half was low on attacking fluency as Benfica held on to the narrow lead at halftime.
Benfica then hit the post early in the second half before doubling their lead against their more illustrious Spanish opponent on 69 minutes. Silva slotted home a rebound following a Ter Stegen save off Joao Mario’s shot.
The encounter went from bad to worse for Barcelona ten minutes later as Nunez dispatched a spotkick earned from a Sergino Dest handball.
Garcia was sent off three minutes from time to add more insult to the defeat following two bookings.
The Camp Nou giants remain winless and have not scored after two rounds of matches, confirming their worst ever start to a UCL campaign.
In other games, Cristiano Ronaldo scored a last-minute winner for Manchester United at Old Trafford in a dramatic come-from-behind 2-1 win over Villarreal.
The Red Devils were outplayed and should have been several goals down in the first period but Paco Alcacer finally fired Villarreal into the lead on 53 minutes. Parity was then restored seven minutes later by Alex Telles.
Ronaldo settled the encounter with the last kick of the game, smashing into the net from a tight angle to make it 2-1.
Chelsea, UCL champions, lost 1-0 at Juventus while Bayern Munich won 5-0 against Dynamo Kiev at the Allianz Arena in Germany.
Results
- Atalanta 1-0 Young Boys
- Zenit St. Petersburg 4-0 Malmo FF
- Bayern Munich 5-0 Dynamo Kyiv
- Benfica 3-0 Barcelona
- Juventus 1-0 Chelsea
- Manchester United 2-1 Villarreal
- Salzburg 2-1 Lille
- Wolfsburg 1-1 Sevilla
By Jonathan Ledger/TheCable
